Victoria Sapientes Elegit the minimalist blog by syarif

Particularly in the last 1-2 weeks, the term social media really hit the Malaysian public. It was highlighted grandly in the 2008 GE that the opposition managed to capture quite a number of seats in the house through viral marketing and social media campaigns, but somehow recently the wave grew bigger.

Starting with the remarks from our beloved Rais Yatim; advising Malaysians not to "get in too deep" with the information received from FB or Myspace, the online societies of Malaysian replied to that notion with a nefty hashtag of #yorais - stating how ancient he is. Then on Saturday Star Metro featured the hashtag #klrb stating that twitter users share information on the whereabouts of police road blocks all over Klang Valley.

I agree with most social media fans out there that it is the "new" news paper. More often than not I receive breaking news for just about anything much faster than the RM5 The Star Newspaper SMS service; by just updating my twitter timeline. And of course by constantly refreshing my FB "news feed" and "status updates" columns.

However, although #yorais is so ancient (as what the "tweeple" put him as); he has a good point in his speech a couple of weeks back. Not everything in social media is as concrete as in the news paper.

Social media, like most things available on the net, is created by a single and is virally spreaded through a medium of sharing (ie twitter, FB, myspace). And, like a lot of things online, we are prone to pranksters, liars and all kinds of human. Chances are whatever we see online is not 100% real. One good example is the case where somebody created rumours that Johnny Depp was dead - which was later found out totally untrue. Or perhaps the local case where this dude claimed to be indirectly involved with the church arson case recently- which was later found out that he was just pulling everyone's leg.

News paper in the other hand has a social responsibility to report the truth, as it is written and published (that's why you need a licence to operate a news and/or any kind of publications for that matter). But there are always loopholes to the system. The truth can be bended. Apart from that I have seen countless times that certain news were not reported or not fully reported to protect certain interest. For instance, there are cases in Sarawak where the Penan girls were raped by the workers of Bakun project- but were only reported in the newspaper of that state, but never reached to the readers in West Malaysia. Why? Words on the street is that it's to keep the "stronger voice" unaware of the situation so that it won't jeopardize the project.

So, which one should you pick?

Honestly if you ask me, I will prefer social media for the unfiltered, unbias and most importantly super fast information. However, I will (and I would strongly suggest everyone to) just counter check it with the good 'ol newspaper (online of course) toverify the truth.

In this world where everyone is trying to protect their own interest, it is rather hard to know which information is true. But at least if the underground and the main stream medias are saying the same thing, we can be sure that there are some truth in it.

Uff, I might have wrote it confusingly just now. What I'm trying to say is be like Hannah Montana, get the best of the both world. Reas social media news all you want, but keep the main stream media information, for just in case.

And I hope that the government would understand by now that social networking is the thing of the present, and most likely for years to come. Wake up, bulk up, step up and rise up, if they ever wish to hear the true heart of the rakyat.

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I can't really tell where I got this as the money has been in my wallet for quite sometime.

But I realized it this morning and just wondering, is this a counterfeit money, or we have produced a low quality bank note?

Either way, I won't be able to use this anytime soon, unless I make the trip to a bank to change it.

Itupun kalau bukan duit palsu la...

Shoot!


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Today was a different day. One of office director suddenly invited myself and Jamil for a game of golf at a driving range near the office.

Without hesitation we accepted, and the next thing we know, we were swinging irons for an hour!

I've never fancied golfing before, despite have tried the game a few times. But somehow today, I kinda like it!

Perhaps it was the guidance from the director, and the fact that there were no one watching my bad swings, 100 balls, shared with 3 people, seems not enough!

Perhaps, I'll try it another day, since it's just RM10 for 100 balls :D



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As per my last entry, I was yapping about the platoon vs platoon of the original bootcamp. Yes, it was tiring, but man, I have never felt so glad that I attended the event!

Well the day started very early when I woke up around 4.30-ish to prep myself. After a major err... "dump", I had coffee and a few smokes. Armed with minimal gear and mixed state of mind, I braved through the morning chill to the meeting point at Taman Metropolitan Kepong.

Along the journey, I tried as much as I can to relax and just stay clear off anything negative. I rolled down the windshield and just breathe in the cool Sunday morning air.

When I arrived, it was roughly 5.30am. The first thing that I noticed was the KL Team. My god, they were scary weh! With their red bandanas and black war-pain ala Samoan, they were singing their war cry; their lungs out! I was petrified by that moment. Huhu!

Then I walked over the PJ side. Not much significant noise. I can see in almost everyone's face that there's this scary feeling. The situation is a lot like the silence before a storm. Serene and calm. Most of us looked half dead. Well, it might just be that most of us were awake like 30 minutes before that. And I can seriously bet my leg that the majority of us didn't take any shower; and literal breakfast for that matter. What I can conclude was, we were the absolute THE under dogs.

By that time I wanted to quit. I don't want to be the guy who made my team lose even lower. But somehow the team mates, upon roll call that morning- began to have high spirit. Out of sudden, laughter burst, people were screaming - the PJ - the ASTAKA Warriors suddenly becomes alive! My heart said leave, but my guts said stay.

So I stayed.

And thank god I did!

It's hard for me to describe why. But perhaps one of the task that I needed to do for my team was to carry a big rope with another 4 team mates. We were asked to set the pace. Proudly I can say that we set the pace so high, we had to do a slow jog to wait for the others! My confident boosted really high, that I started to run up and down the file to motivate the others :D

Then comes the bazooka, rifles and tyres to add things to the challenge.

Sadly, after roughly 2.5km of the circuit, we noticed that we were lost. Honestly, at that time we really thought that we were leading, as we can't see any other teams in front or anywhere near us! Hahaha! It was a funny situation, I can tell you!

We arrived at the last point roughly at 7.40am - with the knowledge that we missed a few checkpoints.

Obviously, with that notion, it can be seen that the PJ would lose this pl v pl.

But I can gladly say that I believe we have won even at the first station (ini kata-kata orang dah kalah la... :p).

Seriously, like in my Bravo team, most of us don't really know each other and I met most of them the first time minutes before the event started. But, we all manage to do things as a team, communicate as one voice, and move with one mind. As an experienced trainer, it is quite a feat to see that number of people could just click and help each other without any disputes.

And as the last team to arrive, RJ, one of my team member, suggested that we do grunts, in good spirit of OBC.

And for the first time ever, I agreed to the motion with a smile.

I actually said yes to the grunts, as you can see in the butt-sticking-up picture of mine :p

Guys, to get more pictures and full details regarding this OBC Platoon vs Platoon, kindly visit http://arminbaniaz.com, under the subject "PLATOON VERSUS PLATOON... Amazing Race".
(Armin, I hope you don't mind)

To get more info about OBC kindly visit www.bootcamp.com.my

Or perhaps just visit the FB Group: ORIGINAL BOOTCAMP - Malaysia (open to public).

Guys, it was not easy. But it sure was a good workout. Hooyah!

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In the spirit of 1OBC, the bootcamp is organizing a platoon vs platoon telematch this coming Sunday. One of the main reason for this event is to actually build the rapport between the current 2 platoons of OBC Malaysia; the PJ Platoon and the KL Platoon. Despite having communicated in FB page, there are quite a number of recruits have never met each other- even in the platoon itself.

This is the chance.

And to make things more, err, interesting, there will be a donation drive during the day that will be submitted 100% to a charity body (which I seriously couldn't recall now).

Well honestly I'm not worried with meeting strangers and I absolutely have nothing against a charity drive. As you guys might have noticed, the abovesaid event is actually 6 hours away from the time I'm writing this entry. You see, roughly 16 hours ago, I just finished an OBC session at Padang Utara PJ. I have only 3 hours of sleep the night before, and about 4 hours left before tomorrow.

That's what worrying me. I signed up last friday in a wide hope that I could sleep soundly tonight. But the newly acquired PSP games made me wide awake since this morning, despite having sleep deprivation.

And to add spices to the situation, there were not many recruits from PJ signed up for the event. Making this handful of blokes the only hope to make PJ proud. The term ASTAKA Warriors (Padang Utara = Padang Astaka) have made the KL Kiasu (yes, the KL Platoon) all psyched and ready to combat sharp at 5.45 am.

I'm under pressured and overtired. Oh, to make things worse, it's raining now in PJ. Making the battlefield (Tmn Metropolitan Kepong near FRIM) would be a muddy arena. Darn...

Well, at least there will be sandwiches. I could now only pray that it's not as demanding as normal OBC session.

Sadly, I've heard rumours that it's going to be like Hell's Week. A bloody (literally) 2 hours of pain.

Aiyyyyyyy.......



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I woke up this morning with not so high spirit; as I know I'm gonna get tired for the OBC. But it was lifted to a great extend just after the warm up session, as (as usual) we need to do grunts as penalty for the AWOLs. Somehow I managed to do 20 without the need for the 5 second break. Maybe it didn't sound much, but it was a great feat for me.

And the morning got better as I took a light breakfast, good coffee and arrived to work early. Cracked a lot of jokes the minute the clock turns 9, and seriously, I really felt like a million bucks.

But all that turned into despair when I heard the bloody news towards lunch time. Well, to save everyone's breath in this story, let's just say that it's involving money and budget from all sides.

I have tried for the past years to save on the expenses of ALL departments. Proposal after proposal after proposal have been submitted. All were accepted, but never executed.

But now when the finance screams that less expenses must be made in order for us to sustain in the next 5 years, all eyes were on me.

The worst part is, they were talking behind my back (as per what my informant told me), that I have done a terrible job in managing all that.

Hey! I'm just the messenger. I proposed, but things were never executed. What can I do? I'm just delivering the information la!

Well, I guess it's human nature. We've seen in all cultures and we've seen in a lot of movies (i.e 300, The Gladiator and even LOTR 3) that all messengers were killed.

And don't get me started on what are they saying about my life behind me. Yes, I'm not a good man. And not the best Muslim in the world, but hey, who do you look up for when you need something to be done? Bloody hell it's me! ME!

And I'm always glad to do it.

Haih... No point already. Things had happened. What can I do?

Perhaps just go with the flow.

Perhaps.



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Well, the glass is empty. But you can see at the back of it, one of my fav drinks here: the Mixed Fruit Tea Cocktail.

Rather refreshing and somewhat energizing!


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Bitter heart, bitter heart, tries to keep it all inside.

Bitter heart, bitter heart of mine...


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I managed to gather my strength anyway for this morning. Roughly with 3.5 hours of sleep, the crankiness I had this morning was utterly annoying- even to myself.

As I have expected, I arrived 4 minutes late for the roll call. But good enough, as I was on time when the sergeants yelled out my name- thus no AWOL was marked. (But Alice, I think you need to contact the sergeant to inform that you were not absent- just in case).

Anyway, with so many people arrived late, and quite a number of AWOL's, we were punished with 70 grunts.

A grunt is when you drop down squatting, pushing your legs out to your back (like in a push up position), pull it back in to squatting position, then jump up to standing position. That's one time.

Like I mentioned, 70 times were 'awarded' to us at the start of the session.

Then we went on the circuit. With rope slapping, shoulder push ups, rifle slant, sandbag squat, 'mountain climbing', sandbag sit ups and star jumps, 40 minutes just pass by.

It was a good sweat though.

And now, at home, cursing my ass off the pains, and shall get ready for work. It'll be a long day today in the office, but that story will be reserved for another day.

Well, anyway, I need to find a way to pull myself together the night before Bootcamp sessions to makee it a better, motivating session.

Or perhaps I'll just leave it like that, just to keep my expectations low, and push myself the next morning?

Not sure.

But whatever it is, I need to keep on going.

Going.


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Seriously, if I stared the day with a caffeine boost, I'm gonna be cranky for the rest of the day.

Of course, I would prefer I nice hot black coffee, but this is the best; with reasonably good price; around the office. Hehe!

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These pass few days I have joined a fitness program under the banner of 'The Original Bootcamp'. Seriously, it's no fun at all.

Well it started roughly a week ago where myself and Alice had to wake up around 5am to arrive at Padang Utara, PJ before 5.45am. It wasn't an easy thing for me particularly, as I just a loooooong weekend before that, and my standard sleeping time was 9am.

But I forced myself to sleep.

Then comes the day.

Started with a simple roll-call, the 10 minute warm up session told me everything: this thing ain't gonna be easy mate!

To keep my cool (and arrogance; for that matter) I braved myself for the second session- a fitness test.

With push ups, grunts and sit ups, plus 400 metres round, for three rounds, it's easier said than done.

I'm lost for words to say how grueling it was for me that morning, but let's just say I have befriended with people with various ethnic background, and they all have taught me nasty words in their languages. I chanted them all.

After all that, it's the 1-mile run. Sounds ok in my full energy, but that morning it took me more than 15 bloody minutes. Damn!

But anyway, after that, the session was ended, with muscles all over my body aching like hell.

That night, I was seriously considering on going for the second day...

That, I shall regail later.

Alice seems high spirited in continuing the course- perhaps until she got her desired weight. Seriously, I wish I got the same enthusiasm.

Somehow the roll calls and the scream of encouragement reminded me a lot to scout roll call days.

And also The Biggest Loser show on telly.

Either which, it's not the most cheerful situation I had in mind.

Aiyyy... There's another session coming up in 6 hours, and I have 5 hours of sleep more.

I'm wide awake. Darn!

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